Pro: Never alone
Con: Never aloneAccurate.
A thing I didn’t understand before getting into a long term commitment with my partner was the money impact:
- Our combined expenses are lower than our individual expenses were. I have happily slept next to this person in a small tent, even though I hate tents. This effect scales to making all kinds of little things more tolerable and somehow cheaper.
- An accountability partner has made me both stick to my budget more often, and cheat on my budget at better, more memorable times.
I had always heard that a spouse and kids were cost, cost, cost. I was surprised to learn how much money shared expenses saves.
Kids are still really fucking expensive, though. They didn’t lie about that.
One of the things I look forward to when we eventually move in together is that we will be able to cook for two more often. It leads to far more reasonable recipes and portions with less food waste. Most cooking for one is either you end up having to freeze a lot of stuff, or you make single serving but low nutrition meals. Instant noodles and frozen dinners just make more sense than cooking something real when you are flying solo
One of the things I look forward to when we eventually move in together is that we will be able to cook for two more often.
Yes. It absolutely lives up to the hype.
Nobody, so far, has addressed the physical intimacy bit, to my satisfaction.
There’s kinds of intimacy satisfaction that are only possible after years and years of practice and communication. That usually also includes sex, but it doesn’t have to.
There’s something special about being touched (and not touched!) at just the right time, in just the right way.
Those of us in relationships that are really long running tend not to talk about it, because it doesn’t make everyone who hears it better off, since there’s a ton of luck involved in finding a long term partner for it.
Nice to have a fulltime friend
It tends to change what you’re free to do every day
That’s a working model, but I think there are different types of relationships. A type of relationship would be an element of the power set of {
friendship,romance,sex}.One person might only like relationships without
sex, another might dislike the wholeromancepart,…Each of these aspects of a relaionship has their advantages and disadvantages. The relationship as a whole is just the sum of them.
You’re the first person I’ve ever seen use the concept of a power set to describe what kinds of relationships there can be and I wish more people knew what that was so I could preach this like gospel.
That said, our relationship is
Øbut it could quickly become {friendship} if we ever met
Third answer, then I’m done.
Disadvantages, and how I mitigate them:
- Shift in hobbies. We have shared passions and different passions. There are some hobbies that my partner doesn’t love that I don’t love enough to do without my partner. I still make time, alone, for my favorite solo hobbies. So does my partner. We have more shared hobbies now. And we have some parallel hobbies (where do we totally separate things, at the same time, and sometimes we compete to be the most boring in hope that the kids will get into the other partner’s hobby, instead, for a few minutes.)
- I had a weird belief that I should stop masturbating once in a relationship. It took me awhile to figure out that, sure, there can be a timing aspect to having a particularly good time, but what everyone really loves is someone who can still take care of themselves.
- Time alone - my partner and I try to send each-other out, alone, at least a couple times each month. We’re all objectively delightful, but everyone needs a break.
- Sleeping together is nice, sometimes sleeping alone is better. I’m increasingly a subscriber to John Hodgeman’s opinion that everyone, who can, should try to set up a “guest” sleeping spot for either spouse to retreat to. A recliner can be great, because it’s often when someone had a cold and needs to sleep elevated anyway.
- Religion and politics. My religious and political beliefs have shifted continentally since I committed to my partner. So have my partner’s, and not always in the same direction. I choose my partner over my favorite politician or pastor. This wasn’t a hard choice for me - my favorite politician and my favorite pastor have never touched me in ways that arouse me… Thankfully.
Sleeping together is nice, sometimes sleeping alone is better. I’m increasingly a subscriber to John Hodgeman’s opinion that everyone, who can, should try to set up a “guest” sleeping spot for either spouse to retreat to. A recliner can be great, because it’s often when someone had a cold and needs to sleep elevated anyway.
My SO and I sleep alone because I move too much in my sleep. My bff and their SO does the same for similar reasons. Sleeping separately doesn’t mean you don’t love each other, it’s a practicality.
Sleeping separately doesn’t mean you don’t love each other, it’s a practicality.
Yeah. I felt silly that it took me so long to figure out that my partner was not worried about it. They do love some cuddles, but I’ve found plenty of ways to make that happen.
my favorite politician and my favorite pastor have never touched me in ways that arouse me… Thankfully.
This is not a problem for the vast majority of people but I was always told that women don’t want to have sex but turns out that they do and this is bit of an issue as I don’t particularly enjoy that myself.
Another issue is that I like being alone but not all day every day but being in a relationship means I have to leave the house to be alone.
It’s interesting because one of the reasons I’ve never dated is because 99% of people on the planet want and need sex in a relationship. I don’t want sex so I figured why bother attempting to date. Well I found out about asexual dating sites and have been casually on them for a while now, but it’s tricky because no one has been close enough to meet. And I don’t know what the hell people do in LDRs if it doesn’t revolve around sex. Wishing you the best.
Thanks! I actually am in a relationship right now and it’s an open one so she doesn’t need to completely live without sex but I still can’t help but to feel like I’m not doing my part. It’s just one of those things that don’t really have a perfect solution to it. Not having sex doesn’t feel right but forcing myself into it to please her isn’t right either especially knowing that it’s what I’ve done in my previous relationships which only has made me resent sex even more.
There are many different kinds of relationships, and they have their own advantages and disadvantages.
For example, someone might say that being in a relationship means you can only have sex with that one person. That’s only true if you’re doing a conventional monogamous relationship. Many people happily and successfully do some form of ethical non monogamy.
ENM in turn has its own advantages and disadvantages. One of them is a high frequency of people going “I knew a non monogamous couple and they broke up” despite the fact that most monogamous couples break up, too. Just to get ahead of that.
Anyway. One of the common advantages I value is that people you have a relationship with are less likely to blow you off. A casual friend might bail on your invite, but it’s less likely a good friend or partner will.
The most common disadvantage is you’ll probably have to do some emotional work at some point. They’ll be having a problem and you’ll have to be there for them. That can be tough.
Main advantage: You feel whole
Main disadvantage: You always have your plate full because you got a little more than wholeness
You trade off freedom for companionship basically, but in a good relationship you can still have a good amount of freedom still (you just need to consider the needs of your partner too).
Relationships take effort and compromise; communicating can be hard (but it’s probably the most important thing in a relationship).
Not being in a committed relationship, it’s a lot easier to live without as many obligations.
Also, if you live together you can pool your resources both financially and effort-wise which can help a lot.
You are never alone…
This counts as both.
Pro: sex.
Con: you live longerDepends on you. Better relationships have better advantages and worse relationships have worse disadvantages. You are the biggest factor across all your relationships.
They might want you to shower and clean your flat - clear advantage. Disadvantage: you may be expected to tell other interested parties that you can only engage in casual sex, since your heart is already taken. Also: fucking without a heart-on is not as satisfactory as making love.
I would not consider cheating to be an upside or downside of a healthy relationship, because it shouldn’t be a part of one at all.
i didn’t talk about cheating
Engaging in casual sex with other people is, in most relationships, cheating. Wishing it could be more is cheating in the rest.
Losing your virginity, sex and reproduction for what I’ve seen. Monetary back up (not always and slightly more beneficial for women).
The need to put up with other people’s shit. Sacrifice your “me” time. Meeting people you don’t care about. Being related by proxy to people you don’t care about it. Giving up your freedom. Being manipulated in certain way just because otherwise you won’t have sex. Discussions, discussions discussions. If married, high probability of divorce.
Very incel way of looking at relationship.
For real. Sex is great, sure. What I want for all of the parts of the relationship that aren’t having sex is mostly just someone I really like hanging out with
That’s you though.
I don’t hate women. So no. I hate how that term is thrown if people don’t wanna accept your way of living.
Incel doesn’t exactly only mean hating woman, incel is basically why you’re still single, then you blame it on everything else other than you, hating woman are just a part of it. If someone doesn’t want to accept your way of living, then find someone else.
I’m not blaming anything. I’m well aware what an average semi attractive woman wants from a man. I will never be those things. That’s not me, I never cared about being those things.
I will never be those things.
Before I was in a relationship, I was 100% wrong about what “those things” actually are, for what that’s worth.
You’re a minority, women want most of the time chatting and socially active strong men able to carry a conversation, manly enough to create a home and have a decent amount of money but delicate enough to be romantic. I can’t do any of those things. Admit it, that’s the majority of women.
So, have you been in past relationships where you learned this or from some sort of observation (going on dates for example)?
See, that’s what i’m saying.
This is an incel attitude. The notion that “all women” want any single thing, let alone this caricature is gross. It’s insulting to women and men alike, and betrays that your mindset is immature, ill-informed, and toxic.
women want most of the time chatting and socially active strong men able to carry a conversation, manly enough to create a home and have a decent amount of money but delicate enough to be romantic.
That is also what I thought. And I was mostly wrong.
Everyone is unique. Stereotypes usually exist for reasons, but exceptions are much more common than I realized.
I am, genuinely, several of those things, at least a small fraction of the time.
But that’s not my secret.
I’ll share my key attributes that really worked:
- My current partner lived in a shitty situation. Physically shitty. I fixed a bunch of gaps in the walls with a can a “great stuff”. We were just friends at the time, and I wasn’t looking for anything. It’s just something I knew how to do, and my friend’s friend (now my long term partner) needed it done. I was fucking clueless how much this meant to them, at the time.
Presently, how I maintain my relationship:
- I’m sometimes really deeply shitty at talking to people, so I usually use few words and choose them carefully. My (valid) fear of fucking up is a kind of super power for avoiding dumb partner fights.
- I still fix stuff. I’m not afraid of getting dirty, and YouTube academy has been very good to me.
- I ask questions during any kind of physical interaction. Mainly “do you want to be touched there?” and “How does that feel?”
- I still follow a strict budget, even though I now make good money. I’ve heard money fights are a big thing, but making and mostly sticking to a written budget has let me dodge that bullet.
I find this perspective unfortunate. It is interesting to see how other people view relationships, but I’m not sure I like what I see. This doesn’t seem healthy.
Majority of things we do aren’t healthy. Also maybe for the fragile isn’t healthy, but for me it is. Be loyal to me, I’m loyal to you, love me and I’ll love you, belong to me and I’ll belong to you, that’s it. Why complicate things with more bullshit?
You’re being downvoting because people believe in the “romantic ideal” and never analyzed how relationships really look like for a large number of people.
What you write about is not a good thing but unfortunately that’s how most people practice relationships.
Well “most” might be a too strong of a qualifier. Depends a lot on the culture. If you come from a culture where marriage is so important that’s almost mandatory, the above kind of relationship is inevitable.
Some of those cons could be true, but I think the bigger problem is that they only listed “sex and money” as the only pros.
What are you doing in a relationship if that person isn’t basically a really good friend that you can laugh with, do hobbies with, watch and talk about movies with, share music with, etc.
Sure you might have to hang out with mutual friends you don’t love (Though a good partner won’t force you to). You do need to spend time on their hobbies and likes if you don’t specifically share them. I’m not sure if I can vouch for the rest, though, those are some cons where you need to be really selective and find like minds to be with (don’t like to speak very often).
the other two (manipulated for sex, fear of divorce) are more like things you should go to therapy to learn not to tolerate or worry about, respectively.
Absolutely, I agree with you completely. And I actually believe finding a life partner is possible. There are good examples out there.
It’s just when you come from a, let’s call it heteronormative (word of the day) environment, you are constantly pressured into being in a relationship. With anyone. Doesn’t matter if you want it. It leads to awful mental health.
That and if the idea of being lonely frightens you or makes you sad it can be easy to want to latch onto anyone, that’s really easy to fall into.
Also, unless they meant fear of breaking up, there’s no need to fear being divorced if you just don’t get married. Not everybody wants or needs to get married, that also sort of falls into the “take your time and really assess the partner” idea
I’ve said this before, my mother and father weren’t friends. Yet they were married for 11 years. That’s more than many friends being married. Is not necessary.
It’s not necessary, no, but it can totally be a pro, unless you just don’t want to be friends with your lover.
Basically what I’ve said, some people don’t want friends.
So are you a loner or you don’t want a friend who is constantly around?
I don’t wanna people around besides my partner and I don’t want her relatives around me. It seems like these days is impossible to have a relationship that is just you and your woman, or you and your man and that’s it. There’s always someone else.
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